Ordination of Priests
13.11.2022
On November 13, in the St. John the Evangelist church of the Masyatsotn Diocese (Artashat City), an ordination of priests was held by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians during the Divine Liturgy.
The Celebrant was His Grace Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, Primate of the Diocese of Tavoush, who consecrated and ordained the five deacons, serving in various structures and dioceses of the Mother See, to the Holy Order of Priesthood. During the Divine Liturgy, His Grace Bishop Bagrat consecrated the foreheads and hands of the new priests with Holy Chrism (Muron) and gave them new names.
Deacon Levon hakobyan was renamed Father Harutyun; Deacon Arsen Sargsyan was renamed Father Vahram; Deacon Shavarsh Ayvazyan was renamed Father Narek; Deacon Davit Gishchyan was renamed Father Davit; Deacon Minas Karapetyan was renamed Father Abgar. Following the consecration, the priests offered their first blessings to the faithful present.
Then, His Grace Bishop Armash, reflecting on the sacrament of the day in his sermon, stated in part; ”You are called to act impersonally, you will live not for your own joy, but for the impersonal joy of all who will be committed to your care. You will be called to grieve the one who is in sorrow, to mourn with the one who is in mourning, to convey a word to the one who does not listen, to show the true path to the one who is on the wrong path, to live heart to heart with everyone not as strangers, but with the feeling of being your own people and to be in constant prayer for everyone”.
Bishop Bagrat, referring to the difficulties of the clergyman's service, urged the priests to turn the test stones encountered on their life's path into fruits of righteousness, filling and abounding in divine love. In his sermon, Bishop Bagrat also stated that he named the priest fathers after Armenians who were martyred in the 44-day war.
On the same day, for the first time an ordination of priesthood was held in the Holy Mother of God Church in Stepanakert, by the Primate of the Diocese of Artsakh, His Grace Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan. Deacon Gor Gyurjian, the director of the Center for Christian Education and Propaganda of the Diocese of Artsakh, received the rank of priesthood. He was renamed Father Vachagan.
The new priests will follow a traditional 40-day seclusion period of fasting after which they will be appointed to serve in different Dioceses of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church.
